From: "Don Hessong" Subject: Kingmaker variant Alan A while back I posted some hasty thoughts about a KM variants. I later refined them, but still have not had the opportunity to play test them. You can place them on Grognards if you want. Don ---------- VARIANT PARLIAMENT RULES FOR KINGMAKER I like the idea behind the optional parliament rules for Kingmaker in that it adds that political aspect to the game. For me though, the mechanics of it are too tedious and cumbersome. So here's my variant. This makes things a lot simpler and should have the added benefit of shortening the game too. This description is pretty wordy, but it's really easy in practice. (Warning: not play tested yet.) 1. Parliament is called to session the usual way. 2. When there are two kings, no monkey business about voting for parliamentary support of one over the other. 3. No finnicky heirchy just to make proposals. Proposals are generally announced by the faction who called parliament but can be informally suggested by anyone. 4. Parliament now has only one house. To pass or reject proposals, one vote is taken - not one vote in each of two houses - just one vote in one house. After rejected proposals, new proposals may be made. Proposals may consist of any number of cards to be awarded to any combination of factions, hence parliament could be concluded in a single vote. But more than one proposal may be passed during a single session of parliament if not all available cards were awarded in previously passed proposals. For votes to be counted, possessing nobles and heirs must be in attendance. For proposals to pass, the votes must be the majority of the votes at that parliament, as opposed to "on the board". 5. Determine the number of votes factions control using a voting scheme chosen from the list below* (or modify any of them to suit your own preferences). There will be a much smaller number of votes to tally compared to the normal rules. Choose exactly which voting scheme is to be used before the game starts. 6. All cards that can not be allocated by vote are returned to the Chancery. This is optional, but I read this variant rule in The General and think it's a good idea. It forces people to be involved in the parliamentary process rather than voting down all proposals hoping they'll draw the good cards from the crown deck. *The Voting Schemes - Choose an option before the game starts. See the notes at the end. a. Each faction with at least one noble attending gets 1 vote. Each Archbishop (2) attending gets 1 vote. If a sole king called parliament, he gets 2 votes. If the Chancellor called parliament, he gets 2 votes. If no sole king, each senior heir attending, crowned or not, gets 1 vote (no more than 1 vote if one player has both). b. Each office, listed in the rules as having votes in parliament (5), attending gets 1 vote. Each faction with at least one noble attending gets 2 votes. Each Archbishop (2) attending gets 2 votes. If a sole king called parliament, he gets 3 votes. If the Chancellor called parliament, he gets 3 votes. If no sole king, each senior heir attending, crowned or not, gets 2 votes (no more than 2 votes if one player has both). c. Each office, listed in the rules as having votes in parliament (5), attending gets 1 vote. Each major noble (4) attending gets 1 vote (Neville, Mowbray, Percy and Beaufort). Each Bishop (4) attending gets 1 vote. Each Archbishop (2) attending gets 2 votes. Each faction with at least one noble attending (other than a major noble) gets 2 votes. If a sole king called parliament, he gets 5 votes. If the Chancellor called parliament, he gets 5 votes. If no sole king, each senior heir attending, crowned or not, gets 3 votes (no more than 3 votes if one player has both). d. Each office, listed in the rules as having votes in parliament, attending gets 1 vote. Each noble attending gets 1 vote. Each Bishop attending gets 3 votes. Each Archbishop attending gets 5 votes. If a sole king called parliament, he gets 10 votes. If the Chancellor called parliament, he gets 10 votes. If no sole king, each senior heir attending, crowned or not, gets 5 votes (no more than 5 votes if one player has both). e. Each faction gets 1 vote for each town/city controlled (even for factions with no nobles attending). Each noble attending gets 1 vote. Each office, listed in the rules as having votes in parliament, attending gets 1 vote. Each Bishop attending gets 3 votes. Each Archbishop attending gets 5 votes. If a sole king called parliament, he gets 10 votes. If the Chancellor called parliament, he gets 10 votes. If no sole king, each senior heir attending, crowned or not, gets 5 votes (no more than 5 votes if one player has both). Notes The first option is the simplest. Half the votes (assuming six players) are distributed among the factions just for showing up at parliament with at least one noble. I call this the "faction vote". It is an abstracted way to represent the votes of all the nobles in the game. This has the benefit of allowing weaker factions a bigger say in parliament than they would have with the standard rules. I think this will help play balance in this game, but therefore may also increase the length of the game (but I'd rather add to the length by playing more than add to the length by counting votes all day). Another benefit is that the archbishops have a high proportion of the total number of votes so people will be more likely to put them in play which would reduce the possibility of the situation where someone can't get the final heir in the game crowned. The down side of this variant is that it removes some of the flavor of the game. So there are more options that progressively put some of that back in, but still keep it much simpler than the standard rules. Note that when more total votes are added, the influence of the "faction vote" becomes less, thus the game becomes more like the original design. If you want to maintain the idea of giving weaker factions more voting power than they have in the standard rules, you have to increase the number of votes given to factions as you increase the total number of votes from other figures. The numbers I used may need to be adjusted further for games with fewer than six players. You also have to proportionately increase votes for important figures like heirs, arch/bishops and the chancellor. Once you start tweaking, it becomes a balancing act. However, if the play balance aspect doesn't appeal to you, things are much simpler. You can just use whichever voting figures you want, giving most of them one vote, but giving important figures more. Option "c" is where the bishops start making the list. Again their proportion of votes is higher than before to keep them in play more. Then there's the four major nobles. These votes are in addition to the "faction vote". This represents the fact that not all nobles are created equal and should also help to keep Beaufort in play. I think option "c" is a good balance between representing most of what parliament was supposed to be in this game, the play balance affect of the "faction vote" and the better chance of keeping arch/bishops and Beaufort in play. You might want to try playing with option "c" first. If you have less than six players, give factions 3 votes rather than 2, unless you don't like the spreading of voting power thing. By the time you get to the last option, votes have been added back in for controlling towns. Some people like the strategy of gaining votes in parliament by pillaging as many towns as possible. If you like having this strategy available, then I would think the idea of spreading votes around among weaker factions just for showing up at parliament would be undesirable to you, so each noble attending parliament - rather than each faction - gets one vote (also true for option "d"). Another point is that by the time you add this many votes - whether it be all the nobles, towns, or both - the faction vote becomes unnecessary. In the last option the proportion of votes is close to the proportion of votes in both houses added together in the standard rules (not really a good comparison I know, but there it is anyway). In the last option there's almost 100 total votes, but counting them up is still alot easier since towns and most figures only get one vote - and remember, in this variant parliament only has one house so you only have one vote. Other Details - These are things about parliament that should be clarified before a game. Receiving factions must be able to award proposed cards to nobles in play (normal rules). Cards can not be awarded to nobles not at parliament if at sea or under siege (unofficial). After parliament all nobles "move" outside the town/city into the open of the same square - except the faction which controls that town/city who may stay inside if desired (unofficial). Make all cards from Chancery available for award during parliament (variant).